recommended lenses mainly on little kids

stonebat

stonebat

Veteran
mainly i take video on my little kids. both preschool. less than a half the size of adults. framing them through the pancake (40mm equivalent) feels like framing adults through 20mm equivalent. it sorta negates 2x crop factor.

50mm lens feels just right for kids full body footage. i think 28mm lens should feel wide enough on them. 14mm lens might make them too tiny. i could get closer to them... but more distortion.

3 fast primes and 1 fast constant aperture zoom should do it for taking videos mainly on little kids.

28mm 2.0, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4 primes with aperture rings
tamron 28-75mm 2.8 nikon version <=== it has an aperture ring!!! i dont think it uses fly-by-wire since its focus ring moves on auto-focusing.

as the kids grow up, i guess i will migrate to less cropped body :). gawd life is beautiful!!!
 
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lens focal length * kids height ratio to adults * crop factor = desired framing focal length

assuming 28/50/85mm r the desired framing focal lengths, ideal zoom ranges for kids about a half the size of adults are

28-85mm zoom for 2x crop
35-105mm zoom for 1.6x crop
55-170mm zoom for 1x crop
 
For taking pictures of little kids I recommend the new Olympus 75-300mm. It works great because you can take pictures from far away so their parents can't see you, and even if they do, it's smaller and much less conspicuous than a traditional telephoto that long....it's perfect for perverts everywhere!

Oh wait, your little kids! Yeah. Ummm. 50mm sounds good, but you're gonna want something that autofocuses and does so well probably. In daylight there's probably not much better than the 14-140mm. Keep an eye out for the rumored 12-75mm f/2.5-3.3 that may be announced with the GH2. Your best bet right now is probably the Leica 45mm f/2.8 macro, it has "a tepping motor [which] makes the focusing action smooth and silent for use in both photo and movie recording," and is a good speed and focal length for this...it also includes OIS which will be very helpful. That said, it's kind of pricey and I've never used one so I can't personally vouch for its usability, but I bet it's a good bet...maybe buy it from somewhere that will let you return it, do a few tests at home, and see if you like it. That tamron 28-75 looks good but it won't autofocus on the GH1 (obviously) and also, and this is more important: is likely a varifocal lens. Most still camera lenses are varifocal not parfocal, meaning as you zoom in or out the focus doesn't stay locked to the same place....can be very inconvenient.
 
panny 14-140 is varifocal, vari aperture, and slow. rumored 12-75 2.5-3.3 cant be true, but i'd prefer 12-75 2.8 constant aperture if its possible. hd ois sound nice, but continuous autofocus makes everything sharp. no blur. no old film look.

tamron 28-75 2.8 is FF lens and has good enough center sharpness at max aperture. traditional focus ring and aperture ring for easy manual controls. only slightly heavier than oly 14-54 ii. it seems good enough for GH13 video purpose. varifocal is non issue as subjects continue to move around. vari-aperture bothers me more as adjusting iso is more annoying.
 
Any thoughts on the Leica 45mm? Your critical focus will be sharp but you'll get some nice blur too.
 
that seems a good lens, but i wanna build more consistent color tone across 28-85mm range for video. i got pancake 20 1.7, vivitar 28 2.0, nikkor 50 1.4 ais, and nikkor 85 1.4 ais. pancake was sharper and more contrary so i had to do more pp work. ais lenses r very nice for video. some said tamron coating is more like nikkor's.
 
People I just go out with whatever lens I have, better if between the 24 - 85mm range, shallow DOF is not so good when your subject is a tiny moving creature who can easily get out of your focused area, just be sure to get a their same level and avoid the "adult point of view" The rules are the same, over 50mm are perfect for portraits, under that you can take good middle or full body.
 
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